It’s on a national news website, so it must be true, right?
Not so, says Kane Ashwood from Download Festival 2019.
‘People are leaving Download early over ‘Biblical’ mud’ screamed the Metro headline…
And sure enough the story had a handful of accounts of people who’d fallen over and injured themselves and had to go home early.
But wait we thought, something doesn’t look right with those pictures… everyone is happy and smiling… nobody looks muddy and bedraggled… at the very least, in the case of that bloke on the left, they simply look determined to have a good time despite a bit of rain.
And indeed, checking on the FB message forums it was clear that the reality of the situation was very different to the headline story – which painted those in the photos as deserters – rats leaving a sinking festival ship.
So our first port of call (to continue the nautical theme) was to track down Jen Mills and give her a little ‘word to the wise’ about misrepresenting people in the press.
Bless her heart and all credit where it’s due, she responded in minutes and the headline was changed to a less accusatory one.
We’re pretty sure she fell victim to some over-zealous photographers trying to make out things were worse than they were.
But – and here’s a warning for all headline-writers when it comes to Facebook sharing – the problem is that the FB elves refuse to let go of the original post content…so for ever more these stalwart festival-goers run the risk of being painted as turn-tails.
And indeed the URL of the article continues to show echoes of the original story.
So here’s where it’s our chance to set things straight, because we tracked down Kane (the guy on the left) and he confirmed that what this picture depicts is the second of his two beer-runs as he stocked up on supplies for a busy and fun-filled weekend with his crew.
Don’t believe us?
Well here’s the proof – and it’s 100% non-fake news…
In his own words:
I did 3 trips with my friend on the Wednesday. It was rough but it was a fun weekend. Shout out to my little download family!! The picture of me in the article was my first of two drink trips, the weather wouldn’t stop us.
Kane Ashwood
Were you another victim of this little non-news story and captured in the headline photos? Drop us a line with your name and some pics to prove you stuck out the weekend and we’ll add you to this article…
